How to Do Things

Cleaning your car from the outside is pretty easy and everyone does it. Its a great way to keep the car shiny and to show off. But what about under your cars hood? The all important engine is left as it is for years on end. This reduces the life of your engine as well as reduces performance. An unclean engine will leave you covered in grease and grime even after a simple tune up. Hence it is important to keep your engine clean too. Here are some tips that will help you keep your engine clean even after years of use.

Dirty slimy mechanicals are always a pain to work on. Simple things such as an oil leak can be impossible to find if your whole engine is covered in dirty black gunk. Even simple maintenance can turn to a nightmare. And to add to the trouble parts will turn slippery and will become impossible to handle while focusing on work at hand. Use a flathead screwdriver to scrape off dirt hidden away in tight nooks and corners. A small wire brush will also work well to scrub away dirt hidden away in corners.

Use compressed air to blow clean the engine. If you do not possess such a cleaner buy a misting nozzle available commercially which will fit perfectly at the end of a garden hose you might have. This will be useful to blow a small and fine spray of water in extremely minimum quantities and at a low pressure so as not to cause any damage to your engine. Using a high pressure and/or high volume water spray will cause damage to your engine and should be avoided. Make sure you use water spray only on components that do not have any electrical wiring or that are non-vulnerable to water.

Before starting out with a spray of water, cover all the water sensitive parts of your engine such as air inlet holes, air filters, breather caps or oil filler caps with plastic or some other water resistant material. Put in effort to cover these up as you do not want to cause damage to your engine. Make sure you also cover up electronic parts to avoid short circuits.

Place a large pan underneath the car to ovoid environmental pollution. Start by scraping away the dirty chunks of grime covering your engine. Continue till all the grime is scraped off and then apply a degreaser all over. Now is the time to rinse your engine. You can use a spray bottle to spray on water. Be generous and completely wet the dirtiest areas. Let it soak in foe a few minutes and start scrubbing the engine when still wet.

After you have scrubbed of all the dirt rinse clean with water or use a compressed air spray. Take care so as not to blow the dirty water and grease right back on you or anybody nearby. Make sure you wear protective gear. After rising off all the grime you scrubbed off in the first round take a look again. You are sure to have missed some dirty spots. Repeat the whole procedure, first my scraping the dirt, applying a degreaser, spraying with water, scraping some more and then finally washing it off. Have some patience as this is a tedious process. Repeat if necessary till you have a clean engine.

At the end of the process the pan you left underneath should have collected all of the dirt, grime and water. Leave the pan in a sunny area so the water evaporates. Carefully dispose off the left over dirt, grime and oil so as not to cause an environmental hazard.

Once the engine has completely dried off remove all the plastic or bags covering all the sensitive parts. Start the engine to check for problems. If everything was done carefully you should have no problems and the engine should run fine. If it doesn’t look for places where water could have gotten. More often than not the ignition system is the culprit. Take utmost care to avoid such a situation by being extra careful during the initial cleaning process.

If everything is done well you should have a clean spotless and shiny engine. If you are planning to sell your car its a good idea to clean your engine first so as to impress potential buyers.

When all goes well, what will be left is a spotless and possibly shiny engine. Your clean machine will look better, be easier to work on, and considerably less frustrating. If you’re planning to sell your vehicle, a clean engine will definitely impress potential buyers.